Blog For Today

Fraser did this.

Transformers 2 Coming Soon!

Best.news.ever. The first was amazing, so hopefully the second will live up to it's predecessor.

The internet is alive with sequel news this afternoon. Top of the heap is Transformers, which even though it hasn’t yet been released is riding a wave of tremendous buzz and seems almost assured to make hundreds of millions of dollars when it opens in the middle of next week. It looks like Paramount isn’t waiting around to make sure it’s a hit, according to a story picked up from Entertainment Tonight, they’ve already greenlit Transformers 2.

It’s too early to have any idea what the movie will be about or whether any of the current cast and crew will be involved in it, but having seen the movie last night I can assure you that it lends itself pretty easily to a long and incredible fun series of giant freakin robot films. More importantly, it’s good enough that it’s bound to leave audiences wanting more of it. Unless the impossible happens and the movie somehow underperforms, sequels are a no brainer. Good move on Paramount’s part. Now they need to lock up Michael Bay and Shia LaBeouf.

Vonage Sued By Sprint, $Million's Handed Over

In a surprising change of events, Sprint has sued the VoIP giant, Vonage $69.5 Million USD. The reason is that in 2005, Sprint sued Vonage for allegedly infringing seven patents from Sprint that dealt with connecting Internet phone calls. Vonage denied the claims and argued that Sprint's patents shouldn't have been approved in the first place. However, after the verdict recently released, Vonage will appeal the verdict and will try to develop workarounds that don't infringe on Sprint's patents.

This is the 2nd time Vonage has been sued because of patents. Verison has also sued them $85 million, and 5.5% of whatever revenue they earn whilst infringing patents.

New Ebuddy Beta, Designed for PSP

According to the company, the decision to come up with the PSP-friendly version was because of the steady rise of chatters who access the service through the Sony handheld. The current release is still in beta build but even so, a handful of features have already been incorporated to it.

Speaking of which, the new version of eBuddy Mobile comes with full emoticon support as well as a wide array of language compatibility: English, Deutsch, Espanol, Francais, Magyar, Italiano, Arabic, Nederlands, Portugues and Pt. Brasileiro. It was said that more languages will be added in future versions.

Link > Choose the PSP option

MMO's ban Men playing as Women

via /.

"In a bizarre move Aurora Technology the owners of the King of the World MMORPG has taken the unusual step of banning men who play women characters but the ban itself does not stretch to women playing men. If you want to play as a woman now in game you have to prove you are a women via web cam. This is something that people ask for in many mmorpgs I myself have seen people say people who play women in EVE online as being some kind of degenerate but how long can a policy of verification by web cam last since its so easy to get around it doesn't seem to solve much and is an insult to many."

...Really?


New Thing: Yoube Video Of The Day!

From now on, we'll post a good YouTube video per post. Or at least, one that we think is good.

This Week:

Nattliv - mensvärk

Over & Out. This is another day late, because I just noticed that it didn't get published.

More Apologise from Snappedarm.....

Hey,
As you guessed from the title, snappedarm (Joel) here.
Sorry guys for not doing many blogs, i have been very busy and Fraser hasnt been on much to remind me! But I Promise (and you have this as a digital Signiture) that i will try and do at least 1 post a week, hopefully more!
Anyway, on with some "News"...

Linux on 80Gb iPods
Fraser successfully installed linux onto his 80gb iPods, although I dont know too much yet, I know it is pretty similar to what he did on his Nano. (which he will hopefully post some pictures on, and a video of his new video in action aswell). Hot Stuff!

40Gb PS3?
Rumors have been spreading wildly lately that Sony plans to release a 40GB PlayStation 3 console for a bargain price of USD 399. These rumors have yet to be confirmed or denied at this point, but it seems that there may in fact be some truth to them.

USB Fingerprint Scanners... All they are cracked up to be? (and the most recommended one)
They are meant to make everything easier, eliminate passwords and using the pc quicker. And so far, they are actually decent, no-one has lied about it, and the software seems to go hand in hand with vista. How they work is they save up to 10 fingerprints, and you use your one (obviously) for your user, so you can only access certain documents, view restricted webpages or even log on to your user with your finger!
The recommended one from Jaffa, is the Microsoft Fingerprint Reader.
Partly because it is made with Microsoft, so just one update and they will have all the drivers and software for the reader.
So Buy One!!

Thats Probably all for tonight, although i will do a bigger better harder stronger post within the next few days.

See'Ya Guys

Insert Generic Title Here.

New post 10/09/07. Dicer here.

I know it's late again, but eh, Joel is away to some other country, and I've been busy as hell.

XBOX Mini

This is a freakin' sweet version of an XBOX [1] which some guy has modded. He has thrown the massive black case, in favour of a shiny sleek case. All I can say it that it's amazingly done! I mean, I would easily drop $200 on this biatch.
Pictures:



It in it's full glory.



That's it compared it the older XBOX, as you can see, it's TINY!

Fanjita and Noobz create a 3.11 Downgrader for PSP!

Yep, you read right, Fanjita and Noobz make a downgrader. Explanation follows...

I'm geussing your asking, "Why a 3.11 downgrader, why not 3.52 downgrader?" well, if you have used homebrew on you PSP in it's lifetime, and decided you didn't like it, you would upgrade to the latest PSP firmware, right? No. Sony put protection on it, and the highest you can go to is 3.11. So if you used homebrew to downgrade your 3.50 PSP to 1.50 with Lumines, then decided you want to go back to 3.50 again - you can't. This is why they made the downgrader.

The downgrader uses Lumines still, so try and grab a copy of it while stocks last!

Anyways, the team thanks Dark AleX because this certain release is based off of the source code for his HEN 2.71. Instructions and other relevant notes about running homebrew are found in the README. Additional notes:

This release consists of HEN for v3.11, plus a v3.11 downgrader, and an idstorage key fixer for v3.11. This allows you the choice of either:

1. staying on v3.11 to run homebrew
2. downgrading to v1.50 to run homebrew or install custom firmwares, or
3. upgrading to official Sony firmwares v3.30 or beyond.

Oh, and the reply to why is Fanjita doing this?

Quote, Fanjita:

Yeah. [I'm just] tidying up loose ends. This was promised ages ago.

M33 Teaser, 3.60 M33 for PSP Slim coming soon...

The last official release we heard from Team M33 was when they rolled out the fourth update of their custom firmware for PSP FW 3.52. Well, here's one of the biggest teasers in the history of homebrew: "3.60 M33 for PSP Slim, Coming Soon!"

That's what they currently have flagged (literally) in the middle of their website right now. How soon is soon? We have no clue. But in the homebrew scene, "soon" could be taken to mean within a day or two from now. Or just a matter of hours!

Sounds cool, though, I wanna know features! I'm guessing they will take advantage of the TV output things, and make it really good.




|
|
|3.60 M33 for PSP Slim , Coming Soon!

And we leave you at that.

Blog, 28/08/07/07

Hello Jaffa fans. Dicer on the blogs today.

Fanjita says goodbye!

This has came as a shock to many people, including me. He said on his blog:

It's with much regret that I have to announce that I'm going to retire from the sharp end of the PSP homebrew scene. The betrayal of trust that preceded the Pandora release was extremely hurtful, and has left me unable to fully trust the people I'd previously enjoyed working so hard with. And so, I have had to decide to stop working on projects that require that level of trust.

Besides that, life continues to be very busy in the run up to fatherhood, and there are various non-PSP projects that I'd like to play with. Not to mention the fact that I'm tired of the continual pressure and idiocy of the PSP scene - long gone are the fun days of pioneering amongst like minds, in a mutually supportive and gentlemanly environment.

The Pandora Battery therefore marks my last major PSP project. I expect that Team C+D and Noobz will continue to release stuff without me, and I still hope to finish up some of the non-exploit projects that I'd been working on (Installotron, piKey etc.).

It was a fun ride while it lasted.

As you see, he talks about "a betrayal of trust". I think that it must of been something pretty bad to make a big guy like Fanjita quit the homebrew scene. I hope whoever did that feels really bad about them self[s] now.

Though, at least he is continuing with small PSP projects, which I guess is okay.

I hope he has fun carrying on with his parenthood.


Leland Yee Demands "M" rating on Manhunt 2

Just when you thought it was all over, this curve ball comes and hits you in the face. Leland Yee, the California senator who made the 2005 Video Game Law is demanding an explanation for ESRB's decision to give Take-Two Interactive's Manhunt 2 (for the Wii and PSP) an M rating, joining the protests raised by the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood.

Yee is suspicious of the relationship between ESRB and Rockstar, claiming that their rating system can't be trustworthy for as long as the decision to make it so was held behind closed doors. Basically, he thinks there is a bit of leg pulling/bribing happening.

He doesn't just want Rockstar/ESRB to state why the rating was changed, but also all the conversations held between the two companys.

He said:

Parents can’t trust a rating system that doesn’t even disclose how they come to a particular rating. The ESRB and Rockstar should end this game of secrecy by immediately unveiling what content has been changed to grant the new rating and what correspondence occurred between the ESRB and Rockstar to come to this conclusion. Unfortunately, history shows that we must be quite skeptical of these two entities. [...] Clearly the ESRB has a conflict of interest in rating these games. It is time to bring transparency to this rating system and for the industry to be held accountable.

A poster on QJ said to always remember that politicians are there becasue we have voted for them. If we don't like what they are doing, we have the power to get rid of them. They aren't elected to play God, they are elected to serve us.

Good Point Sir.


The Go! Services Info

Go!Messenger will be available with a future firmware update and will install a new icon on the PSP's XMB. Go!Messenger will give PSP users free wireless communications over Wi-Fi, offering an Instant Messaging service and voice chat.

The IM service will feature an intuitive on-screen keyboard. It'd be interesting to see just how intuitive it will be. Video chats will also be available by making use of the Go!Cam. The service will also require a headset.

Go!Video basically transforms the PSP into a portable media library. Users will be able to choose from a diverse number of programs from Sky, Ireland the UK's multi-platform television service. Available programs will include sports, entertainment, movies, music, and animation.

Sky is also in talks with other third-party channel brands to bring in more content. The programs will be available via Wi-Fi or the PC where users can just transfer the videos. Programs will be delivered on a pay per view basis so users will only watch and pay for the programs they want.

Go!Explore Is a GPS unit. The device offers 3D mapping that pinpoints various places of interest ranging from gas stations to restaurants. It even lets you plan out a route for you in advance, letting you "fly" over the city. In the demonstration featured here in the Leipzig Games Convention, the Go!Explore function is used to navigate from London's Houses of Parliament to Trafalgar Square. Check it out, it's pretty cool.

I think these services are gonna blow up. Think - I know these services are gonna blow up. When a custom firmware is made out of the PSP firmwares, It will be very good.

PS3's Play TV Feature

Along with the Go! services, Sony announced the Play TV feature for the PS3. Basically, it turns the PS3 into a VCR/TiVo device, recording TV Shows directly onto the Hard Drive in MP4 format. I think there is some sort of box that goes with it, I'm guessing that it's the TV tuner.
The service will be available in the UK, France, Italy, Germany, and Spain in early 2008. The service will be available to other PAL territories that support Digital Video Broadcasting in the future. PlayTV picks up Terrestrial video format (DVB-T) which is organized with the Electric Programme Guide EPG2.


That's all from me today, stay tuned for more tomorrows.

Getting Back into Jaffa...

Sorry we havent posted again in a while, as you know summer holidays are busy times and even with the crappy british summers people dont spend a lot of time on the computers.

So anyway we are back and posting more regularly.

Worlds First 32gb and 16gb SDHD, and 8gb MicroSD Cards.

Toshiba have rolled out a new 32gb SD card, that meets class 4 specs in the SD speed class! Also a 16gb version is available, and the tech guys down at Toshiba have also produced an 8gb MicroSD card.

However the 16gb and 8gb aren'nt being sold until October Worldwide, and the 32gb on sale next January. So plenty of space for those random videos off YouTube of people blending their iPods ect.

M33 Custom Firmware 3.52 Update #4 (3.52 M33-4)

This is what the guys say they have changed


Quote
"* Fixed the bug that caused CRC error when writing to flash usb in the XMB. Now writing is OK.*


Added the new speeds to vshmenu and core, because we forgot in recovery.


AS we didn’t want to release a new update without something new, we worked in making 3.10/3.11 to work with popsloader, and that’s it, the new popsloader plugins supports them. Instruction for 3.10 and 3.11 are same as 3.30: you need pops.prx, popsman.prx and pafmini.prx with the correct names in popsloader directory. And remember that savedata of 3.10-3.30 are incompatible with those of 3.40+. We’ll research if a solution for this is possible."


The Update is meant to be safe and finally getting the bug fixes.


Kudos Team, stick it to ‘em!



Line Rider for PSP





You have obviously played the addictive online flash game, Line Rider - and all its relatives, Line Flyer, Jeep Flyer ect - Homebrew developer nataku92 created a PSP Game heavily inspired by Line Rider known as QQ Manto v0.5.


However it is not a "Snowboarder" or a sledger as more of a blob, it reminded me only too much of Loco Roco!

Thats all for today, More Posts Tomorrow...

Check This Out and get Rick Rolled!

A bit late.

I know, we're late. Joel has been away, and I'm finally in Dubai.

News

Stab-proof School Uniform

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/6945814.stm

After I saw this, I did some research about knife crime in London, and I found some of these numbers:

In 2006 London, only five percent of all violent crime involved knifes. And, although London seems to be a hot spot for knife crime(like most large cites are), and accounts for 40% of national knife crime(witch sounds like a lot), has SIX offences per year, SIX! And that includes stabbing and anything else to do with knives, so that's carrying one around in the open or owning an illegal knife. Now, to put that in perspective, London's population was 7,172,091 on the latest Census Day of April 2001. If all six of those offences were stabbings, you would have a 1/0.00000084 chance or being randomly stabbed. If this isn't scare tactics to push sales, I don't know what is.

R13 Update: Hack Found

Strmnrmn has found an "interesting Dynarec hack" which all in all, could speed up the new Daedalus up by 10% and make it more stable. Great. Strmnrmn says:

What I realised on Monday is that I can make an assumption that lets me remove the error handling code for certain types of load/stores. The assumption is that when the N64 accesses any memory through the stack pointer ($sp) register, the address is always going to be valid, physical memory.

The assumption relies on the fact that most roms don't do anything particularly clever with their stack pointers - it gets set up for each thread to point at a valid region of memory then the game just runs along, pushing and popping values from it as the code executes. Of course, if the assumption is wrong then the emulator will just crash and grind to a halt in a unpredictable manner :)

He is now checking R13 with a load of ROMS, when that's done, it'll be up for download.

Team Wildcard changes thier views on the leaked source

Word from tipster EXTER had led us to an official statement by Team Wildcard - more officially branded as Team Wildc*rd - who in their own respects have done much for the PSP hhomebrew community.

PSP homebrew developers and followers already know the story behind the custom firmware source code leak, but the release of such code had obvious ramifications: developers now had the opportunity to release rip-off CFWs as they saw fit.

"Out of respect to the devs that worked so hard on this source and also out of respect for Dark_AleX, Team Wildc*rd politely requested that this source be used for educational purposes only and not for public releases," said the representative from Team Wildcard. But this statement prompted the need to tackle PSPGen's Ketchup (theketchupman in QJ.NET's Forums) and his use of the code for his recent releases.

It's no secret to Wildcard that Ketchup took his code direct from their source code for his release, which brought significant concern to them. "It is not that we do not respect Ketchup's work; on the contrary, we were quite impressed with what he had achieved. What we do not wish however, is for the source to be used," claimed the team.

They would allow the reversal of code from their .prx binaries to be used, because after all, that was how they came up with their own custom firmware code. "We completely reversed DA's PRX's rather than using his direct source. ... Even though members of Team Wildcard wish to remain anonymous, there are members that know DA personally and we can assure you we have his blessings," added Wildcard.

Contrary to opposite beliefs, Team Wildcard never had aspirations to release the source code, but due to mischievous circumstances, they had to act. And perhaps because of these conflicting views, some developers will not adhere to Wildcard's sincere call. "We cannot force anyone to do whatever we want. ... We cannot force you not to, we can only ask for you to respect our wishes," responded Wildcard.

Nevertheless, Wildcard still hopes to avoid the release "ripped clones" of CFWs. "I believe we are respecting [Dark Alex'] wishes that way. [Ketchup] may release a recovery, only if it's based on our prx and not the source code," the representative concluded.

Angry man records all the Madden '08 bugs

A lot of us are Electronic Arts fans who religiously follow every installment in their annual sports franchises. Even that much loyalty though, is not enough to appease an angry gamer after spending US$ 60 to get a copy of Madden NFL '08 (Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, PSP, DS, PC) only to find out how glitchy it is.

Someone going by the name of PSYK0MANT1S on YouTube was very excited to get home from work to play his new copy of Madden. To his disappointment, two games were enough for the glaring glitches to appear. A lengthy post on his bitter feelings accompanied a video he uploaded . Taken from his rant:

...EA needs to STOP releasing beta builds of their games. EA needs to STOP releasing a game that needs a patch the next day. EA needs to STOP letting us the consumer/gamer pay for a buggy product. EA needs to get their act together and get some REAL Quality Assurance going on.

Here are the glitches he was able to record using the game's replay feature. NSFW, Language.



Pretty bad, don't ya think?


Anyways, we are gonna try and start up regular posts again, but with all the stuff thats going on, don't go angry German kid on us if we don't.

I'm Back

I'm now back from Ireland and in the comfort of my own home now. Yee hah. Though, Joel is in Croatia.

Oh, and I move in 10 days. Yaa Hah II.

Virtual PSP Modding Program

AcidMods have written a program so you can virtually mod your PSP. Like, take the faceplate off, and drill holes for LEDs and such. At first, I though it was crappy, then I thought, it would be useful if you've never cracked it open before. You can get used to the inside and stuff.



Anyway, the program isn't out yet, so you'll have to wait until "F00 f00" releases it.

IRSHELL 3.6 RELEASED!!



Woo hoo!

Yeah you heard right, Ahman has Ahmazed us with another release of his uber popular program, IrShell.

This one is for all the custom firmwares above 3.40 OE-A and M33's firmware.

On his forum:

The long wait is finally over after more than six months. This is a special iR Shell public release brought to you by AhMan & StoneCut. To news posters: Please retain the "Special thanks" section when posting the news.

New features added since the last public release:

• Added support for Team M33's newest custom firmware (See note 1). If you don't want to update to M33, you will still be able to use this new release with older OE firmwares
• Launch and multi-task with PS1 games from within iR Shell (works also via USBhostFS and NetHostFS) (see note 2)
• Backup ISO plugins now integrated into iR Shell 1.5 EBOOT and 3.5x EBOOT (also supports USBhostFS and NetHostFS)
• Backup UMD Video ISO support (also supports USBhostFS and NetHostFS)
• Direct switching between 1.5 EBOOT and 3.5x EBOOT via new shortcut combo
• System-wide "Quick Exit" function to quickly shutdown games, homebrew etc and return to iR Shell
• Improved Autoboot to iR Shell plugin
• New Comic Reader plugin based on PSPComic for CBZ and CBR files by suloku - Original version by Archaemic
• Added the ability to flash/blink the menu highlighting cursor.
• Added support for adhoc PC nethostfs connection under 3.xx CFWs (some additional firmware files required)
• Added a new config item in configurator to turn on/off the Music button for screen capture.
• Other bugfixes and tiny improvements.
  

Please Note:

1. CFW 3.51 M33 Original version, 3.51 M33-2 (patch 2 with WLAN fix) and 3.52 M33 are supported. 3.51 M33-3 to 7 (patch 3 to 7) are not supported due to a sceKernelLoadExecVSH bug which had been fixed in 3.52 M33.
2. The launching of PS1 games via USBHostFS & NetHostFS works on all OE firmwares and also 3.51 M33 Original & Patch 2. The latest 3.52 M33 firmware currently has issues when launching user converted PS1 games via USBHostFS & NetHostFS, but PSN store purchased games works fine. Team M33 is currently looking into the issue.
   

Special thanks:

• Dark_AleX for his previous contributions & help in iR Shell development. We hope you had enjoyed hacking the PSP. Happy retirement and wish you best of luck in your future endeavors.
• Team M33 for continuing DA's work and their help in fixing M33 firmware compatibility issues with iR Shell.
• All iR Shell private forum members for their contributions, including donations, testing, skin making, plugins, etc. Without their support, especially StoneCut, you won't see this special public release.

• 
  

Oooh lordy lordy, this is hella cool.

The Madison Celebrity



"The Laptop For Every One"

Well, what do you think? Looks Like a normal laptop, right?

Well, Here is the spec:

Technical Specification

• CPU - Intel® Celeron® M Processor 370 (1.5 GHz, 90nm, FSB400, 1 MB L2 cache, uPGA478) * DISPLAY - 14.0" WXGA (1280x768) TFT
• HARD DRIVE - 40 GB
• DIMENSION - 333(W) x 243(D) x 24/33.(H)mm (front/back), 2.2Kg with 6 cells Lithium-lion battery
• MEMORY - 64-bit wide DDR data channel, One 200-pin SODIMM socket, supporting DDR 333/400, 256 MB Expandable up to 1GB, based on SODIMM Modules
• STORAGE - One changeable 2.5" 9.5mm(H) HDD, Supporting Master mode IDE ATA-33/66/100/133 (Ultra DMA), One changeable 12.7mm(H) CD/DVD Combo
• VIDEO CONTROLLER - VIA PN800 integration, Shared Memory Architecture up to 64MB, 128 bit 3D graphic engine, Support analog monitor pixel resolution up to 1920x1400, Support two displays dual view
• KEYBOARD - A4 size keyboard, Built-in Touchpad with scrolling function
• SOUND SYSTEM - AC'97 2.2 Compliant Interface, 3D stereo enhanced sound system, Sound-Blaster PROTM Compatible, S/PDIF Digital output (5.1 CH), 1x Built-in Microphone, 2x Built-in Speakers
• I/O PORTS - 3x USB 2.0 ports, 1x External CRT monitor output, 1x Headphone jack, 1x Microphone jack, 1x S/PDIF output jack, 1x RJ-45 port for LAN, 1x Line-in jack, 1x DC-In jack
• PCMCIA - 1x Type II PCMCIA socket
• COMMUNICATION - 10/100BASE-TX Fast Ethernet on board, 802.11g MiniPCI Wireless LAN
• POWER - Full Range 65W AC adapter - AC input 100~240V, 47~63Hz, DC output 20V, 3.25A, Removable 6-cell Smart Li-ion battery pack, 4000/4400mAh
• SECURITY - Kensington® Lock
• OS - Red Hat Linux

Doesn't seem too bad eh?

Well, I mean, for a laptop for work or whatever. The price you ask?

$150 USD.

Yep. One-Hundered-and-fifty-dollars. Or £77.

How can thay do this? Thier FAQ says:

Q: Why is the laptop much cheaper than other laptops?
A: We see this from a democratic point of view where we believe everyone should be able to afford to have a laptop. The other reason is that we have our own plants where we assemble our laptops.

Well, that's all from me. Stay classy, Planet Earth.